Clouds In My Coffee
by Chiriru
Summary: Set During "Rouge" with spoilers for the rest of SMVL Season 1. Chloe ponders days gone by, her dreams, and the like. CS/CK, just a little bit... or a whole lot depending on how you look at it...


Notes: Set during Rouge after Lana gets the Torch, through Clark's little crime spree, but before Papa get's his butt put in jail... I hope I didn't butcher the timeline to much but this is about Chloe so *sticks her tongue out* Anyhow - Spoilers for Obscura, Crush, Stray, and Tempest tho. (And no, I couldn't be simple and list them in the correct order either!) Thanks to Shar for her pre-reading and her help with proofing, your the best! ^____^  
  
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"Clouds in my Coffee" by Chiriru  
  
Chloe Sullivan was miserable. Horribly, utterly misrable. Most would never see the chipper-yet-pesky editor at her all time low. Heck, until today she didn't even realize she had an all time low.  
  
But, before today she had never thought she would ever have her paper taken away. But there lies the rub, it was not her paper. It was the school's. Principal Kwan had made sure that was pointed out to her a few days ago. The same day she lost her job.  
  
That night had been much different than to night. She had gone about school in shock and later denial. When she had gotten home she had made sure to try and do things to cheer herself up. She tried that French Roasted Vanilla Latte Mix that her Aunt Molly had sent for her birthday. She had a huge raspberry bath thanks to those wondrous folks at Bath & Body Works. She had begun to figure out how to get her pride and joy, also known as the Smallville High Torch, back on stationary given to her by one of her many cousins in Metropolis.  
  
And just when the shock was subsiding, she had gotten a short - but ultimately spirit-lifting and sweet - call from Clark. It was almost 10 o'clock then and neither had a lot of time for the phone call. But he was re-assuring, calming, and... Clark-like and as she had drifted off his call and her ideas assured her everything was going to be fine.  
  
But everything was far from fine. In fact everything had gone wrong, so very wrong so very quickly.  
  
In the back of her mind she knew it wasn't Lana's fault. She knew the raven- haired former-cheerleader wasn't truly trying to take over her job, her friends... her life. But that was the rational part of her mind and she wasn't talking to that part right now.  
  
She couldn't bring herself to stay at school. Not after what Kwan had done. Not after Lana could just walk in and say that. Not when her best friend just tried to be Mr. Diplomacy. Her rational side pointed out that it was a good idea - in part. But, she wasn't listening to that any more.  
  
Clark had ignored her —his best friend who needed comfort, help, support or SOMETHING— for Lana. She should get use to it, she supposed. After all, the only time he was solely centered on her was her first day... and the only time was when she out-and-out kissed him in his "Fortress of Solitude" or his barn, as she would say.  
  
She remembered watching him all day. Some times watching him watch her. If there was anything more exhilarating, she didn't know what it was. And while she had never believed in love at first sight, seeing him made all the difference. He came in, all red flannel-blue jean covered with his messy hair and his beaming smile. Even now, she had to remind herself to breathe at the memory.  
  
She remembered demanding a copy of the paper and to be introduced to the school paper editor immediately. She remembered that she had thought she was going to have to fight her way up only to find that the one dream she had when she moved to Smallville was put right in her lap.  
  
She could see her first glimpses of Pete, Whitney... even Lana, as much as she didn't want to. She could feel the warmth of Clark's eighth-grader smile beaming at her (he hadn't out grown her until that summer, only making an infatuation turn worse) and she could feel herself smile at the recollection.  
  
That had been a good day, the only day when she didn't need to compete with Lana Lang for the one person that had touched her with out saying a word. Sure, when ever she needed help he would come... but it seemed that Lana got help whenever.  
  
The Torch was her baby. It allowed her to do her favorite things - write, hang out with her friends, play with nice expensive computers, and hang out with Clark... wait, she already said that.  
  
Chloe shook her head as she looked down at her brightly colored mug. She had fled from school only to come here... the Beanery, a place where she couldn't scream or cry or do any of the things that she felt she needed to. She could only sit an reminisce on a day gone by. It wasn't her style.  
  
She wasn't the type to sit away in some Cinderella-esque manor. Chloe Sullivan was a girl of action... for a girl of fifteen. No one would peg her for some one who would wait in some pink dress fluffy dress waiting for a knight in shinning armor to sweep her off her feet. She wasn't one for appreciating hallway PDA's or sappy hand-holding in a coffee shop.  
  
And as much as Clark brought out another side to her altogether, she was fairly sure that none of those scenarios were going to work out. After all, when your Chloe Sullivan, girl reporter, dependable friend and comrade, your already pegged as best friend status and you'll never get any closer.  
  
Glancing out the window, she noticed that night had fallen. Getting up, she passed her mug to Zoe and walked out side. Fall was coming to Kansas, she noted. She tugged her jacket a little tighter and walked on.  
  
No, as Chloe Sullivan she could never get any closer. She could never win, especially since Lana Lang, the girl who was just beginning to feel like one of the few high schooler who could appreciate having a friend that wasn't just another Tina in a see of copy cats, was now taking her turf. No, she should have realized that she never had a chance and never would.  
  
She should just give up on this foolish fantasy of hers. As she unlocked her door and saw the blinking red light on her answering machine, she considered just that. The timing was just right - it was obviously him.  
  
But, just as on that first day when she had been a sucker for his farm boy charm, she pressed play anyway to hear a message full of stutters, pauses, and barely hiding anguish. He admitted to knowing that they "weren't talking" but there were some things that he just "needed to talk to his best friend" about. And some things he "wanted to let her know."  
  
As she picked up her phone, she still felt depressed. She still knew that it would be some time before he ever looked at her with out that best friend tag, and if she wanted that to happen she needed to be clearer about it. That she could always be drawn in by him and that she would always be the sucker. But that first and foremost she was his friend, and that was the most important thing.  
  
As the tone rang and the numbers were punched, she felt her desperation meet up with her depression and the overwhelming feeling to cry came bubbling up...but he picked up the phone, his own voice slightly shaky and scared - probably about things she didn't know about right now - and the feeling seemed to fade. They talked about miscellaneous things, not what needed saying. And as an eventual smile worked it's way on to her face, she knew that she hadn't lost, not to Kwan and not to Lana. And with that, she smiled even more.  
  
Chloe Sullivan was happy, if even for a moment. She was slightly-sarcastic, and intoxicatingly cheerful. And there was only one who was able to cause this change or ever heard this side of her.  
  
On the other line, Clark Kent smiled into the phone - the first true smile in days.  
  
-finito- 


End file.
